Sunbeam

Courtesy of Carissa Hambelton.

"I have to share this little story about how cute kids are!...During Primary today we had a member of the Bishopric-Brother Dunne-come in and give a short lesson about how prophets wrote the Book of Mormon. This is the conversation that happened between Brother Dunne and one of our Sunbeams-Gavin.
Brother Dunne-"Who wrote the Book of Mormon?"
Gavin-"Joseph Smith"
Brother Dunne-"That's right! And how did he write it?"
Gavin-"With CRAYONS!!"
It was the cutest thing ever! The answer Brother Dunne was looking for was that Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon with the help of the Holy Ghost, but kids are so sweet and come up with the best answers sometimes. I love teaching these kids!!"

Thanks Carissa & John! We sure appreciate you for teaching our little guy!!!

Work Hard

A while ago Gavin got his heart set on getting "Woody's Remote Control Car" from Toy Story. We'd been through the toy store and he was very specific. It had to be the big one with the remote control. The thing is RC car is a pretty expensive toy and we'd just finished spoiling this little guy for Christmas and his birthday. So we created the "job chart". Gavin was given some responsibilities around the house that he could do and earn money for accomplishing. Things like: clearing the table, washing the windows, picking up his toys, practicing his letters, weeding the yard with dad, feeding the dogs, washing the car, dusting and walking the dogs.
Well it turns out our little guy is quite the helper! I could not believe his perseverance and determination. His favorite job was walking the dogs (which was actually a family walk to the park). As you can see from the pictures of the job chart we are pretty stingy and he really had to work hard to earn enough money for his little car!
We also used this opportunity to teach Gavin about what a great blessing it is to be able to work and how we express our appreciation for all that Heavenly Father gives us by paying tithing. The concept was just so natural to this little guy who thanks Heavenly Father for every little joy in his life every night.

He was SO excited.

Yup, paid in quarters, dimes, nickels & pennies.

(It wasn't busy and they were great sports about it at the toy store.)

I love the look of accomplishment in his face.
Congratulations Gavin.

Tulip Festival

Tulips are my favorite flower, so this might have been a bit more for my enjoyment than for anyone else. When I was a small child I had a neighbor that had carefully planted rows of beautiful red tulips. I vividly remember being inexplicably drawn towards them because they looked like candy. Then I ungraciously decapitated them to make petal boats to float blades of grass down the gutter stream. My poor horrified mom marched me up to my neighbor's front doorstep and made me apologize. This is my first recall of an (at the time) insincere apology. I loved her tulips and couldn't have felt more entitled to my own personal enjoyment of them. I can't say there is anything else in the world that makes me feel such exclusive satisfaction than tulips becuase when I see tulips...I think of candy.

Took the kids to the Tulip Festival just past Woodburn and they had a great time.

The kids were pretty enchanted by all of the beautiful flowers.

OR the kids had a blast stomping through the biggest mud field they've ever encountered in their entire lives...perhaps the mud was more appealing...

April Fool's Day 2010

Knock knock!

Who's there?

Banana!

Banana who?

Banana Noodle!

HA HA HA HA HA!

Yes, jokes with kids ages 4 & 2 are as good as they get. For April Fool's Day we had silly dinner.

We wore funny hats, we ate with silly utensils, we had salad out of our cups and drank applesauce through straws.

Pretty silly.

Easter Egg Hunt 2010

Our church Easter Party was a breakfast at Alton Baker Park. The kids made Easter Bunny hats. There was a Christ centered nature walk. We played relay games, croquet, pin the tail on the bunny and of course there was an Easter Egg Hunt. Gavin & Emilia helped play Easter Bunny and hid eggs with me. So when you watch the video clip and hear Emilia's excitement at finding Easter eggs you can giggle like we do because...she hid them...
I'm a big fan of silly hats for special events...and apparently so is Gavin.

You cannot plan for a day like this in March in Eugene. We were VERY fortunate to have blue sky and sunshine.

Candy...what candy?

I love this little video. Hope you do too!

Duck Baseball 2010

Caught a Duck Baseball Game at PK park and had a blast!! We are frequently informed that Miss Emi is the cutest thing to be found.
Can't argue with them.

The Hot Dog that fed the team.

The kids loved the binoculars...kind of unnecessary from where we were sitting but don't tell them that.

Emi caught a ball! Or at least picked it up off the ground first.

Then a guy in our section caught a ball and gave it to Gavin! After the game Gavin & Emi ran the bases.

Beach & Buggy

The weather in Eugene was beautiful so we took off for the coast. Only to be rained on. We sure love our rain...we travel to make sure we don't miss it. While there we went on a dune buggy ride along the beach. The kids loved the adventure!
Safety first. Because nothing says safety like car seats and helmets...

Gavin's view of the ocean.

I apologize for the following clip-I didn't even really know I was recording it-so the angle is wonky-but the content is priceless.

St. Patrick's Day

For St. Patrick's Day we had green milk in our cereal, we ate green pesto pasta with green peas for dinner and we ate green popcorn for a snack. Emi wore her green tutu, Gavin wore green all week. Gavin is very aware that it is March and we wear green in March. Gavin's preschool had a cute St. Patrick's Day party! By the way do you know who St. Patrick is? I had to look it up because I realized he probably didn't chase the snakes out of Ireland and I needed to beef up on my history for when my kids ask silly questions...I'm just going to leave the question hanging...
Silly preschool song about catching a leprechaun.

Parachute with the leprechaun.

The smile that says I caught a leprechaun...

Mac Court

Our little family went to the last men's basketball game played at Mac Court. I have fond memories of the rumbling enthusiasm that is Mac Court but am delighted to see the Duck's future at Matt Court-for more than just a couple of reasons...
One can only hope that we will no longer ponder our demise if fire were to spread through the rickety building with it's maze of stairways...

We may never worry again about the strange open windows at child height on the 3rd story...with a little push on the lead based paint shutter he'd be meeting parking lot...

The knees of our neighbors may never again dig into our backs.

No more contemplating if my child could or would climb through that strange opening and if the crowd below will catch him.

Our knees may never again dig into the backs of others...kind of sad...

I'm glad my kids were able to experience the excitement that has been Mac Court...even if those experiences were near death experiences.

Reptiles!

Took the kids to a reptile show! They were very brave and I was very impressed. We learned what different reptiles like to eat, what kind of temperatures they like and how they feel. She found the pink snake. It was her favorite.

Tortisimo!